Reservoir Engineering I

Barham S. Mahmood
E-mail: barham.sabir@koyauniversity.org
Petroleum Engineering Department
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Permeability
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• Permeability Definition

• Differential form of Darcy’s law

• Assumptions for use of Darcy’s law

• Applications of Darcy's law

• Field units

• Average permeabilities for several layers

• Permeability measurement
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Having worked through this chapter the Student will

be able to:
• Define permeability and present an equation, Darcy’s Law, relating flow rate
to permeability in porous media.

• List the assumptions for the applicability of Darcy’s Law.

• Derive an equation based on Darcy’s Law relating flow of gas in a core plug
and the upstream and downstream pressures.

• Derive an equation relating flow rate to permeability for a radial

incompressible system.

• Comment on the difference between gas and liquid permeability

(Klinkenberg effect).

• Averaging permeability data for parallel and series block

• Sketch a figure relating liquid permeability to gas permeabilities plotted as a

function of reciprocal mean pressure.
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Permeability
Permeability

Is defined as the ability of a porous medium, e.g., sedimentary rock, to

conduct fluids. The larger the permeability, the more fluid flow can be
achieved through the medium for a given set of conditions.

• The earliest attempt at quantifying permeability was the work of Henry

Darcy in 1856. Conducting many experiments on beds of packed sand
and using different liquids.
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Darcy observed the following relationships:

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Permeability cont..
Where:
q: volumetric flow rate of the fluid through the medium, cm3/s
ΔP: difference in pressure between inlet and outlet of medium, atm
A: cross-sectional area of medium that is open to flow, cm2
L: length of medium, cm

Combining the three relationships, the following equation was obtained

The proportionality constant, c, was found to be inversely proportional to

the viscosity of the fluid used. Therefore, it was replaced with k / μ and
above equation became:
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Permeability cont..
Equ. (1)

• The new constant, k, was found to be the same for a given porous medium
regardless of its dimensions, the type of fluid used or the pressure drop
applied

• Darcy termed this property the coefficient of permeability, which was later
called simply the permeability, and above equation became known as
Darcy’s law

• It should be noted that implicit in the definition of permeability is the

requirement that the fluid saturates the porous medium completely.
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Permeability unit
• If we substitute consistent units for all the variables in equ. (1), such as
dyne/cm2 for pressure and dyne. sec/cm2 for viscosity, we find that the
unit of permeability is cm2 and this is indeed one of the units employed
in the metric system of units.
dyne
cm3 cm2 cm2
=K
s dyne. sec cm
cm2

K = cm2

• One cm2 is a very large permeability that is not encountered in natural

rock. Therefore, reservoir engineers have adopted another, more
practical, unit defined as follows:
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Permeability unit
If 1 atmosphere of pressure drop is required to flow a liquid of 1 cp
viscosity through a porous medium of 1 cm length and 1 cm2 cross-
sectional area at a rate of 1 cm3 per second, then the medium has a
permeability of 1 darcy.

1 Darcy = 9.869 x 10-9 cm2 ≈ 10-8

A more common unit of reservoir rock permeability is the millidarcy (md),

1 Darcy = 1000 md
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Differential form of Darcy’s law

• Equation (1) can be used in situations where the flow streamlines are
parallel (flow is linear) and all variables are constant with time at any
given location (steady state).

• These conditions are highly idealized and are seldom encountered in

real situations.

• The differential form of Darcy’s law, which is more general and can be
the starting step in the solution of any flow problem, is expressed by
Equ. 2.
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Differential form of Darcy’s law cont..

Equ. (2)

• Where s is the coordinate along which flow is calculated.

• subscript s denotes the value of the variable in the s-direction

Equation 2 applies to any flow system, and it can be used to compute the
flow in the s direction at any given point in the system
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Differential form of Darcy’s law cont..

To complete the differential form of Darcy’s law, one more detail has to be
addressed.

• the pressure increases with depth within any static body of fluid. This
pressure called hydrostatic pressure (ph).

• is the result of the weight of the fluid column above the depth of interest.
and is given by
Equ. (3)

However, the pressure at a point within the body of fluid may be greater
than the hydrostatic pressure at that point. This could be caused by an
external force applied to the fluid such as pump action
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Differential form of Darcy’s law cont..

This dynamic pressure component, which is the true driving force of flow, is
called the flow potential and is defined as:

Equ. (4)

With this consideration, the generalized differential form of Darcy’s law

becomes

Equ. (5)
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Differential form of Darcy’s law cont..

The above equation can be write in the form

Equ. (6)

and the change in elevation head is equal to the sine of the angle to the horizontal
= sin, where  is in degree
The Darcy units are:
Vs = velocity along path s - cms-1
k = permeability - Darcys
µ = viscosity - centipoise
ρ = density of fluid - gcm-3
g = acceleration due to gravity - 980 cms-2
Ps = pressure gradient along s – atm cm-1

1.0133 x106 convert from dynes cm−2 to atmospheres

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Assumptions for use of Darcy’s law

The simple Darcy Law, as used to determine permeability, only applies
when the following conditions exist:

(i) Steady state flow

(ii) Laminar flow

(iii) One phase present at 100% pore space saturation

(iv) No reaction between fluid and rock

(v) Rock is homogenous

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Assumptions for use of Darcy’s law cont..

(i) Steady state flow, i.e. no transient flow regimes.

This becomes unrealistic in terms of flow in a reservoir where the nature

of the fluids and the dimensions of the reservoir may produce transient

flow conditions for months or even years. For laboratory based tests, the

cores are small enough that transient conditions usually last only a few

minutes.
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Assumptions for use of Darcy’s law cont..

(ii) Laminar flow, i.e. no turbulent flow.
For most reservoir applications this is valid however near to the well bore
when velocities are high for example in gas production turbulent flow
occurs. Sometimes it is termed non- darcy flow. Figure 14
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Assumptions for use of Darcy’s law cont..

Rock 100% saturated with one fluid, i.e. only one fluid flowing.

In the laboratory this can be achieved by cleaning cores, however, there

will be a certain connate water saturation in the reservoir, and there may

be gas, oil and mobile water flowing through the same pore space. The

concept of relative permeability can be used to describe this more

complex reservoir flow regime.

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Assumptions for use of Darcy’s law cont..

(iv) Fluid does not react with the rock, i.e. it is inert and there is no
change to the pore structure through time.

There are cases when this may not happen, for example when a well is

stimulated during a hydraulic fracturing workover. The fluids used may

react with the minerals of the rock and reduce the permeability. In such

cases, tests on the rock to determine the compatibility of the treating

fluids must be conducted before the workover.

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Assumptions for use of Darcy’s law cont..

Rock is homogeneous and isotropic, i.e. the pore structure and

the material properties should be the same in all directions and not

vary. In reality, the layered nature and large areal extent of a

reservoir rock will produce variations in the vertical and horizontal

permeability.
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Applications of Darcy’s law

(i) Horizontal, linear, incompressible liquid system

From the basic Darcy equation

Equal to zero,
because flow is
horizontal
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The variables are

separated and integrated
over the length (0 to L)
and the pressures P1 to
P2 for the change in
pressure

Equ. (7)

The final form is as formulated by Darcy and the permeability will have the
units of Darcys if the other units are:
flow rate, Q - cm3s-1 pressure, P - atm
area open to flow, A - cm2 length, L - cm
viscosity, µ - centipoise
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Applications of Darcy’s law cont..

(ii) Horizontal, linear, compressible ideal gas system

The flow regime is the same as for the linear liquid system and from
the basic Darcy equation:
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The flowrate measured, Qb at ambient pressure, Pb is related to the

flowrate, Q in the core at the pressure in the core, P via the ideal gas law.

If the assumption is made that the temperature is constant, then

and substituting into the equation, separating the variables and integrating
produces
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Equ. (8)

Equ. (9)
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• Comparing the two expressions equations 7 and 8, it is seen that the

gas flow rate is proportional to the difference in the pressure squared,
whereas the liquid flowrate is proportional to the difference in the
pressure

• In certain circumstances, the mean flow rate, Q is measured at a

mean pressure, P which, in the case of a laboratory experiment on a
core, is the mean of the upstream and downstream pressure, i.e.
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The ideal gas permeability can be

calculated from the liquid equation
using mean flowrate, Q measured
Equ. (10) at mean pressure.
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Applications of Darcy’s law cont..

(iii) inclined, linear, incompressible liquid system

From the basic Darcy equation

𝑑𝑧
= sin 𝜃
𝑑𝑠
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𝐾 𝐴 𝑑𝑝 𝜌𝑔 sin 𝜃
𝑞= − [ − 6
]
𝜇 𝑑𝑠 1.0113 𝑥 10

Separating the variables and setting the integration limits at P = P1 at s =

0 and P = P2 at s = L yields:

𝐿 𝑝2
𝑞𝜇 𝜌𝑔 sin 𝜃
[ − ] 𝑑𝑠 = − 𝑑𝑝
0 𝐾 𝐴 1.0113 𝑥 106 𝑝1

Since all parameters in the LHS integral are constant, integration would yield

𝑞𝜇 𝜌𝑔 sin 𝜃
− 𝐿 = 𝑃1 − 𝑃2
𝐾 𝐴 1.0113 𝑥 106
After rearrangement, the desired flow equation is obtained

Equ. (11)

It should be noted that for upward flow dz/ds = - sin θ and above

equation must be modified accordingly

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Applications of Darcy’s law cont..

(iv) Horizontal, radial, incompressible liquid system

re is the outer boundary radius

rw is the inner boundary radius (well)

Pe is the pressure at the external boundary

Pw is the pressure at the inner boundary

Starting from the basic Darcy expression again,

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Substituting for flow velocity,

In this case the direction of flow is in the opposite sense to the co-ordinate
system, therefore
ds = -dr
For radial geometry, the area, A, is now radius dependent therefore
A = 2πrh
Substitution into the basic expression gives

Equ. (12)
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Separating the variables and integrating

Equ. (13)
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Applications of Darcy’s law cont..

(v) Horizontal, radial, compressible real gas system

In this case the geometry is identical to that of the radial flow of

incompressible fluid with the modifications for the compressibility of

a gas as per the linear gas flow system.

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If the assumption is made that the temperature is constant, then

and substituting into the equation, 12

Separating the variables

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and integrating produces

Equ. (14)
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Field units
Measurements made in the field are often quoted in field units and to
ensure compatibility with the Darcy equation, a conversion is required.
The field units are usually as follows:

Flow rate, Q - bbl/day or ft3/day

Permeability, k - Darcy
Thickness or height of reservoir, h - feet
Pressure, P - psia
Viscosity, m - centipoise
Radius, r - feet
Length, L – feet
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Field units cont..

In order to convert the Darcy equation for liquid flow,

Equ. (15)
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Field units cont..

Exercise (homework)
Prove that the Darcy's equation for radial flow in field unit is:
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End of Lec #5
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Example 1
What is the flow rate of a horizontal rectangular system when the conditions are as
follows:

permeability = k = 1 darcy

area = A = 6 ft2

viscosity = m = 1.0 cp

length = L = 6 ft

inlet pressure = P1 = 5.0 atm

outlet pressure = P2 = 2.0 atm

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Solution 1
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Example 2
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Solution 2
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Average permeabilities for several layers

Bed in parallel
1) Linear Flow
The average permeability can be developed using the Darcy flow equation:

If all the beds have the

same width the A ∝ h so k
is the arithmetic average:
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Average permeabilities for several layers cont..

Bed in parallel
2) Radial Circular Flow

Each layer supplies a rate of Qi. The total

rate of flow is QT = Σ Qi

2𝜋ℎ𝑖 𝑘𝑖 (𝑃𝑒 − 𝑃𝑤 )
𝑄𝑖 = 𝑟
𝜇 𝑙𝑛 𝑟𝑒
𝑤

2𝜋ℎ 𝑇 𝐾 (𝑃𝑒 − 𝑃𝑤 ) 2𝜋(𝑃𝑒 − 𝑃𝑤 )

𝑄𝑇 = 𝑄𝑖 = 𝑟𝑒 = 𝑟𝑒 ( ℎ1 𝑘1 + ℎ2 𝑘2 + ℎ3 𝑘3 + ⋯ )
𝜇 𝑙𝑛 𝑟 𝜇 𝑙𝑛 𝑟
𝑤 𝑤

ℎ𝑖 𝑘𝑖
𝐾=
ℎ𝑇
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Average permeabilities for several layers cont..

Layers in series
1) Linear Flow
The average permeability of linear
beds in series is obtained by adding
the pressure drop across each bed.

This mean is the harmonic average permeability kH

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Average permeabilities for several layers cont..

Layers in series
2) Radial Circular Flow
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Total pressure drop:

One of the main applications

of this equation is the acidizing

and fracturing operation

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Example:
Given the following permeability data from a core analysis report, calculate
the average permeability of the reservoir.
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Solution:

𝒉𝒊 𝒌𝒊
𝑲=
𝒉𝑻
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Example:
A hydrocarbon reservoir is characterized by five distinct formation
segments that are connected in series. Each segment has the same
formation thickness. The length and permeability of each section of the
five bed reservoir are given below:

Calculate the average permeability of the reservoir by assuming:

a. Linear flow system
b. Radial flow system (Assume rw = 0.25 ft)
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Solution:
For a linear system

Using this equation

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Solution:
For a radial system
Assume a wellbore radius of 0.25 ft:
re

r4

r3

r2

r1

rw
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Solution:
𝑟𝑒
ln( 𝑟𝑤 )
𝐾𝑎𝑣𝑔 = 𝑟1 𝑟2 𝑟3 𝑟4 𝑟𝑒
ln( 𝑟𝑤 ) ln( 𝑟1 ) ln( 𝑟2 ) ln( 𝑟3 ) ln( 𝑟4 )
𝐾1 + 𝐾2 + 𝐾3 + 𝐾4 + 𝐾5

ln(1358 0.25)
𝐾𝑎𝑣𝑔 =
ln(150 0.25) ln(350 150) ln(650 350) ln(1150 650) ln(1350 1150)
+ + + +
80 50 30 20 10
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Example:
The following data are given:

re = 10000 cm

rw = 10 cm

rf = radius of acidizing (or fracture) zone = 500 cm

h = 1000 cm

Pe = 200 atm

Pw = 50 atm

K1 = permeability before acidizing = 300 md

K2 = permeability after acidizing = 25 d

Calculate the production rate before and after acidizing?

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Solution:
Before acidizing

2π ×0.3 ×1000 ×(200−50)

Q= =4093 cm3 /sec
10 × ln 10000 10

K = 0.3 D
After acidizing re= 10000 cm

10000
ln 10
Kavg = = 0.68 𝑑 rf= 500 cm
500 10000
ln 10 ln
+ 500
25 0.3
Kf = 25 D

2π ×0.68 ×1000 ×(200−50)

Q= =9277.5 cm3 /sec
10 × ln 10000 10
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Permeability measurement
Permeability is measured on cores in the laboratory by flowing a fluid of
known viscosity through a core sample of known dimensions at a set
rate, and measuring the pressure drop across the core, or by setting
the fluid to flow at a set pressure difference, and measuring the flow
rate produced.

we must make a
distinction between
the use of gaseous
fluids and the use
of liquids
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Permeability measurement cont..

• In the case of liquids the measurement is relatively straightforward as
the requirement for laminar flow and incompressibility of the fluid are
almost always met at surface geological conditions.

• If one wants to use gas as the fluid, as is commonly done in the

industry, there are two complications:

1) Gas is a compressible fluid

2) Gas slippage or the Klinkenberg Effect

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Permeability measurement cont..

1) Gas is a compressible fluid

• If gas is flowing at the same mass per unit time through the core, it will
actually be travelling more slowly when measured in volumes per time
at the input (high pressure) end of the sample.

• because it is compressed into a smaller volume, than at the output end

(low pressure) where it expands.

• The equation used to calculate the permeability value from the

measured parameters has to be modified to take the gas compression
into account
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Permeability measurement cont..

2) Gas slippage or the Klinkenberg Effect

• At low gas pressures, there can be very few molecules of gas

occupying some of the smaller pores. If this happens, the laws that
we are using breakdown, and their use causes an overestimation in
the permeability. This is known as gas slippage or the Klinkenberg
Effect.

• Mean free path is function of size of molecule, thus peremeability

measurements are a function of type of gas used in laboratory
measurement.
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• Mean free path is a function of pressure, thus klinkenberg effect is

greater for measurements at low pressure – negligible at high pressure.

• Permeability is a function of size of capillary opening, thus klinkenberg

is greater for low permeability rocks.
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Gas slippage correction

• Gas slippage is corrected for by making permeability measurements

with gas at multiple pressure differences and constructing a graph of
the measured apparent permeability against the reciprocal of the
mean pressure in the core.

• Mean pressure is defined as upstream flowing plus downstream

flowing pressure divided by two, [pm = (p1 + p2)/2].

• If a plot of measured permeability versus 1/pm were extrapolated to

the point where 1/pm = 0
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Gas permeability ( Kg)

Liquid permeability ( KL)

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Example:
The air permeability of conventional plug sample was measured at several

mean pressure with the following results. Sample area = 3 cm2, sample

length = 3 cm, flowing temperature = 70 F,  = 0.0182 cp, atmosphere

pressure = 0.979.

Determine the absolute or equivalent liquid permeability of the sample?

(Note: 1 atm = 29.92 hg)

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Solution:

Column 3 = (column 1/ 29.92) + 0.979

Column 4 = (Column 3 + 0.979)/2
Column 5 = column 2 X (0.979/column 4)
qm × μ ×L
column 6= Ka =
A × ∆P

plot of measured permeability (Ka) versus 1/pm

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27 md

Liquid permeability = 27 md
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Example 12:
You are core analyst and wish to determine the true permeability for a woodbine
core sample taken from a Brazons country well at 8800 feet. The following data are
available:
Core length = 2.7813 cm
Core diameter = 2.5324 cm
Atmospheric pressure = 14.6 psia
The test fluid was nitrogen with a viscosity of 0.017 cp

Upstream pressure (psig) Downstream pressure (psig) Flow rate (cc/sec)

40 10 97.2
35 15 80
30 20 59.7
27 22.5 29.9
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Solution:

𝐾𝐴(𝑃12 − 𝑃22 )
𝑄𝑏 =
2𝜇𝐿𝑃𝑏
𝐾 = 𝑠𝑙𝑜𝑝 𝑥 𝜇
𝑄𝑏 𝑃𝑏 𝐾 (𝑃12 − 𝑃22 )
=
𝐴 𝜇 2𝐿

(𝑃12 − 𝑃22 ) 𝑄𝑏 𝑃𝑏
Plot verses to find the slop then multiply by viscosity to find the
2𝐿 𝐴

permeability
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2
2.5324
𝐴 = 𝜋𝑟 2 = 𝜋 = 5.037 𝑐𝑚2
2

40 + 14.6 2 10 + 14.6 2
( 14.6 ) ( 14.6 )
2𝑥2.7813
14.6
97.2𝑥(14.6)
5.037
𝑄𝑏 𝑃𝑏 (𝑃12 − 𝑃22 )
𝐴 2𝐿
19.3 2
15.9 1.3
11.9 0.7
5.9 0.3
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∆𝑦 20
𝑠𝑙𝑜𝑝 =
∆𝑥 18

16

(6 − 0.1) 14
𝑠𝑙𝑜𝑝 =
(0.3 − 0) 12

(𝑄𝑏 𝑃𝑏)/𝐴 10
𝑠𝑙𝑜𝑝 = 19.6
8

𝐾 = 𝑠𝑙𝑜𝑝 𝑥 𝜇 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
((𝑃1)^2− (𝑃2)^2)/2𝐿

𝐾 = 19.6 𝑥 0.017 = 0.3332 𝐷𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑦

𝐾 = 333.2 𝑚𝑑
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Exercises

Exercise #1
Compute the steady-state flow of water in a core sample 4” long, 1” in diameter with
permeability of 150 md, if the inlet pressure is 50 psia and the outlet pressure is atmospheric.
The viscosity of water at the conditions of the test is 0.95 cp.

Exercise #2
A sandstone aquifer 8 miles long, 2 miles wide and 70 feet thick with a dip angle of 6 degrees
and permeability of 80 md is conducting water from the ocean floor to a reservoir at the other
end as shown in below figure. The ocean floor is 600 feet deep, and sea water has a density
of 68 lb/ft3 and viscosity of 1.4 cp. If the reservoir pressure is 1600 psia, compute the steady-
state rate at which the aquifer is charging water into the reservoir.
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Exercises

Exercise #3
Water (μ = 1 cP) is flowing through a core sample (L = 10 cm, D = 2.5 cm) of 170 md
permeability. Compute the flowrate if inlet and outlet pressures are 5 and 2 atm, respectively.
Give your answer in cm3/s and bbl/d.

Exercise #4
A brine is used to measure the absolute permeability of a core plug. The rock sample is 4 cm
long and 3 cm2 cross section. The brine has a viscosity of 1.0 cp and is following a constant
rate of 0.5 cm3/sec under a 2.0 atm pressure differential. Calculate absolute permeability.
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